First Meeting with Snow Empress

"Ah! Do we still have to meet Snow Empress? But she won't submit to someone else and become your Guardian."

"Shut up, Tian Meng!" Ice Empress kicked Tian Meng away. As for saving Snow Empress, even if it cost her life, she would do it.

"Wuwuwu..."

"Alright, Brother Sky Dream. Snow Empress is essential. The God Creation Plan has already been partially completed, and my talent is enough to support what comes next. But there's a problem we have to face: I'm too weak right now. If I encounter a Titled Douluo, I won't even have a chance to run."

"Cultivating Extreme Ice is normally extremely slow. With conventional methods, I won't reach Titled Douluo without twenty or thirty years. That's too long, with far too many uncontrollable risks. If I perish halfway through, the God Creation Plan will end there as well."

"B-but even so, Snow Empress can't possibly submit to someone else and become another person's Guardian."

"I never intended to make Snow Empress submit to me. This should count as a transaction—a transaction beneficial to both sides."

Tian Meng curled into a ball. "Why don't you first take a look at your own strength? The moment you meet Snow Empress, she'll probably slap you to death."

"There's no need to worry about that. I just thought of a way. Ice Empress, where is the gathering place of your Ice Scorpion Clan? We can find a lone Ice Jade Scorpion, then you can speak to it and have it pass our words on to the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts of the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan."

"Using the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan as intermediaries, as long as Snow Empress doesn't kill me the instant she sees me, I'll have a chance to speak with her. As long as I can speak to Snow Empress, this matter won't be too difficult."

"Are you sure?" Tian Meng asked timidly. Having experienced the terror of Fierce Beasts, he held an almost instinctive fear of the ruler of the Extreme North.

He had already met the first two of the Ten Great Fierce Beasts, and neither of them had left him with a pleasant impression.

"I'm sure. And after spending so much time together, Brother Sky Dream, you know me. If I didn't truly feel that there would be grave danger without Snow Empress, I wouldn't choose to take you on such a risk to meet her."

"You can sense danger too?" Tian Meng asked in surprise.

"Compared to sensing opportunities, I'm much worse at sensing danger. I can occasionally sense it, but it's even more vague and indescribable. Besides, the Sun Moon Empire itself isn't all that safe. Its internal problems are manageable, but I don't know what might happen with Shrek in the future."

"It's best to be prepared. Snow Empress only needs to protect me occasionally at critical moments. Then we can safely continue down the path to godhood without worrying that a Limit Douluo might suddenly pop up one day and slap me to death, or demand that I do something like nine cuts and eighteen holes."

"Alright, but Bing Bing, there won't be any problem finding an Ice Jade Scorpion to pass along the message, right?"

"Get lost! Since when did my clansmen need a piece of trash like you to judge them? Xiao Qiang, let's go. Ignore this trash."

"Wuwu, Bing Bing despises me."

Xiao Qiang: "..."

With Tian Meng's Mental Probe and Ice Empress's familiarity with the Ice Scorpion Clan, finding the clan's gathering place was effortless.

"Ice Empress, which Ice Jade Scorpion is more reliable? Point one out, and I'll use Mental Interference and Psychological Suggestion to make it leave the group."

"Any one that has reached the ten-thousand-year level will do. Any Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Scorpion has enough intelligence to communicate with me. Just bring over whichever one you want."

After Ice Empress said that, she saw Xiao Qiang looking at her helplessly within the sea of consciousness.

"What is it?"

"Ice Empress, is there any chance that I simply don't know which Ice Jade Scorpions are ten-thousand-year ones?"

So far, Ice Empress and Tian Meng had identified his fourth soul ring; Tian Meng had identified his third; his second had belonged to an Ice Silkworm that had long been known about. Only his first soul ring had been chosen by Xiao Qiang himself. As someone with only level-five Innate Soul Power, Xiao Qiang had not had much time to learn about soul beasts, much less Ice Jade Scorpions, soul beasts that did not appear in the Sun Moon Empire. Being able to recognize them at all was only because of Ice Empress. How could he possibly identify their age?

"The third one from the right."

"Alright."

Xiao Qiang activated the Psychological Suggestion of his first soul skill and the Mental Interference of his third soul ring at the same time. The Ice Jade Scorpion chosen by Ice Empress gradually slowed down. Without disturbing the other members of the Ice Scorpion Clan, it slowly separated from the group.

Once it had left the group, Xiao Qiang appeared before it. The instant it saw a human, the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Scorpion was about to attack. But the next second, Ice Empress instantly took control of Xiao Qiang's body. The aura belonging to the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion made the Ice Jade Scorpion before her tremble in fear.

Xiao Qiang then used the soul skill Mental Share, allowing the Ice Jade Scorpion to see Ice Empress's appearance.

The Ice Jade Scorpion moved, seemingly furious.

"Enough. I'm fine. I only have around a hundred years left to live, and I can't survive the Heavenly Tribulation, so I accepted this fellow's God Creation Plan..."

Ice Empress explained to the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Scorpion why she had become like this, lest a Hundred-Thousand-Year Ice Scorpion see Xiao Qiang later and simply kill him with one swipe of its tail.

"That's the situation. Go call an Elder over. I have something to instruct him about."

Having received Ice Empress's orders, the Ice Scorpion quickly departed. Before long, seven Hundred-Thousand-Year Ice Scorpions arrived beside Xiao Qiang. The strongest-looking one among them looked at Xiao Qiang and spoke in human language. "Chieftain, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. You all know what happened, right?"

"We know. It was our incompetence that prevented us from finding heavenly treasures that could help the Chieftain break through the limit."

"It doesn't matter."

After Ice Empress spoke with the Ice Jade Scorpions for a while, she ordered one of them to find Snow Empress. After giving the other six a few instructions, she had them lead their clansmen away. On that snowy field belonging to the Ice Scorpion Clan, Xiao Qiang waited alone for Snow Empress's arrival.

Before long, a powerful pressure suddenly appeared, making it difficult for Xiao Qiang to even stand steadily. It frightened Tian Meng in the sea of consciousness into curling into a ball.

"Bing Bing, I don't want to die!"

"Calm down, Brother Sky Dream. This pressure is powerful, but it isn't lethal. At most, it's a display of authority. For us, that's actually a good thing."

"How is a display of authority a good thing?!"

"Brother Sky Dream, in business, the ones who haggle are the real buyers. This display of authority is also for the sake of gaining the upper hand in what comes next. If she didn't want to speak to me, she could have just told me to get lost. Why use her pressure without crushing me to death?"

"Huh? Is that how it works?"

"Hmph. Not only useless, but stupid too."

After calming Tian Meng down, Xiao Qiang finally saw the Heavenly Snow Woman of the Extreme North.

"Let's make this clear first—I surrender."

"Can you withdraw this pressure first?"